Last time in Son of the Sun... John revealed even more of his past to Terra, who, with Luna's help, sought him out. But back at the temple, a strange white crane by the name of Callina asked Chris, Mina, and the rest of the Sailors to grant John an audience. Son of the Sun: Last of a Legacy part 2 Kat knew she was incredibly late, but that they would have started the meeting without her already. As she ran up the steps to the temple, she felt something was different, intrusive somehow. *My imagination probably.* she thought to herself When she reached the top, she knew something was up. Mina looked upset, Chris was consoling her, and a white crane was perched atop the temple roof. The others were involved in conversations of their own. Ami was talking to the crane. "What's going on?" Lita told her. "Well, seems this crane belongs to John..." "The guy who tried to kill Chris?" Kat interrupted Lita continued. "...well, yeah. But it seems John wants to come here to talk to us about something. We more or less have said he can come." This surprised Kat, why would they want an insane maniac here? Then she noticed someone was missing. "Where's Terra?" Lita sighed. "She went with Luna to go talk to John." "Isn't that dangerous?" She knew Terra could take care of herself, but... "We already went through that argument." The crane looked straight at Kat. "Moonlight Guardian?" Kat looked at the bird in surprise. How did it? "I am Callina. Retainer to the Lord of Atlantis." "Lord of Atlantis?" Kat found herself grasping at reality, "John was the Lord of Atlantis? last time I checked he was barely over feeding himself!" "He'll have to explain it when he comes to talk to you, for now I must depart. I'd expect him to return here in about a day or two. I will let you know." With that, the crane took wing and flew off. Leaving Kat still confused. ---------------------------- "So you see why I am hesitant to approach any of you." Terra understood what John was saying, and cared deeply about it. He was being eaten alive from the inside out with this torment. "Is there anything we could do to help?" Luna asked. "Unless you can detect implanted messages in my brain, I'm sorry to say that you can't." There was a defeated tone in his voice. Terra was adamant, "There has to be SOMETHING! It's not right for you to have to suffer after finally reaching your goal!" "A supreme injustice, but not one that was unforseen." Terra thought, *hard*, "John, I've gotten a new power since we knew each other long ago..." She gulped. "Would you mind if I probed your mind? It's a shot in the dark, but it would be able to do something like what you are looking for." John looked at her with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. But then turned away. "I won't let you risk that." Terra was a bit confused by his statement, "What do you mean by 'risk'?" "I believe that he's referring to the possibility that if this message is strong enough, you might go berserk as well." Luna prompted. "Luna's right, but I'm also worried about other things that have happened. Not so much as the events of the past, but the events not even I remember for one reason or another. There are unspeakable horrific images inside my head. Coupled with my feelings at that moment..." He shook his head, "It made me what I was, a raving madman. I will not allow you to risk yourself or your sanity over me." That frightened Terra. She remembered how bad John had been. She had to do something... but John's voice was also showing his complete lack of care for himself in the matter. What to do? It wasn't only that he didn't want her harmed, but also that he felt hopeless himself. This wasn't a way for a warrior... no way for *ANYONE* to live, no matter how disgraced. "I don't care about the risks...I'm going to do this for you." Terra sounded convinced, she wasn't any sort of slouch. "I told you that I won't-" Terra clenched her skirt in frustration, "Don't make me order you." "What!?" John turned to her with a look of utter abandon, he could and he couldn't, still.... "You're positive you would to do this, even knowing that you might never come back?" Terra gave a firm nod of her head. "I do." John turned over the situation in his head until he came to his own solution. "Do what you must. I will help you in any way I can, it's my mind, but I may not be able to do very much." "Right." Terra took Luna gently off of her neck and placed her on the table, then reached out and touched John's temples. She felt him clench his jaw, then loosen it. She looked directly into his eyes, and then fell into the abyss. -------------------------------- Terra found herself surrounded by monsters and horrors she remembered from nightmares, horrible perversions of man and beast. It took every scrap of concentration she could muster to press through them, and when she did, she found herself walking through a waste land, devoid of all vegetation and life except the beasts that swarmed behind her on the cracked earth. This was the inside of John's mind: a dead empty place, tormented by these inner demons, fear, loneliness, dread, darkness... the pits of hell. But why? As she traveled onward through his tormented conscious, Terra passed large patches of lush greenery, perhaps happy memories, but they were always surrounded by abominations and horrors. She wondered really how much pain and suffering he had endured through those thousands of years. Every once in a while, Terra would feel one of the beasts behind her try to attack her, to drag her into their world of terror -- the same oblivion John pitted himself against. And always, as she turned to defend herself, the beast would evaporate in a flash of flames. John was keeping his promise of protecting her while she journeyed through his mind. After what she thought was hours, but knew was only minutes or maybe even seconds, she felt something poison the air around her. It was...EVIL. Raw in it's purist form. As she moved forward, it shaped itself into the image energy cloud of Metallia, a mocking laugh echoing about like some perversions of church bells. At that instant, Terra knew John was only too right, Metallia had equipped him with a true curse, an internal self- destruction program that would have first destroyed himself and then everyone he knew and cared for. Thus distracted the blackness around her increased as the beasts of torment and destruction attacked her in a swarm. Goaded on by Metallia's continuing laughter, they knew no bounds. As they piled atop her, she fought back with sword, fist and foot. But it was in vain, for clothes ripped and limbs bleeding she was buried under the terror. She screamed, but was drowned out by the terror of Metallia's laugh which drove her minions on. ---------------------------------- The Fenix Knight entered the throne room of the massive palace. His master had summoned him, and he hadn't the will to disobey. But why would he want to disobey? He puzzled, the master had given him life, hadn't he? But he was so... "FENIX!" The voice echoed through the room, and the Fenix Knight dropped to one knee. He had healed even more after his master's last summons, and was almost whole. "Master my creator dear... Why didst thou summon thy servant here?" He knew his master was grinning behind the facade of that blood-red eye. He also knew that there was nothing for him to do about it. The silence kept up for about a minute, and then his master's voice boomed. "I summoned you here, Fenix, to gauge the strength of our army." Wait. Wasn't Al-Ghural the head of the army? He faced his master with his confusion apparent on his face. "I know Al-Ghural is the commander of this army, but you also need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the army. What if Al is defeated?" It seemed logical enough... "Tell me, which subject do you believe would be best to see how strong our opposition is?" Fenix considered the various subjects, "Beholder might be suitable for a mission such as this, Or Trileth the serpentus man, and his intimidating hiss..." The dark master was again silent. "Beholder is too powerful for a simple strike-and-fade. If I wanted someone dead, which I don't yet, I would send him. But Trileth is a good choice. His three heads regenerate if they are cut off, correct?" The Fenix Knight nodded. "Good. Send him to me now." The Fenix Knight bowed low, stood, turned, and left, knowing that Trileth would not be the only one to be going to Earth. ------------------------------ In a burst of light the blackness of fear vanished from around Terra. It was then she realized she was being pulled out of the midst of the monsters, by a winged man. "Hang on." She recognized John's voice. He flew her the equivalent of a mile, but still the horrors followed, led by the monstrous Metallia. "John!" She finally understood, fear was only a strategy, "You have to fight that thing yourself! Face it!" With that John suddenly landed giving Terra a chance to see him. It wasn't John but, as she had guessed, a representation of him. He was completely iridescent, and glowed with a kind of celestial radiance. "Metallia's spell is using your own fear against you!" "You're right. I had to pinpoint where it was. Thank you, I will not live like this another day." The he approached the figure of Metallia, mocking laugh still in place "What do you think you're doing little man? Attacking me? You forget, I now OWN you!" "You! for TOO LONG have I lived in fear and ignorance! That is what fed you, made you stronger. But NO LONGER! TODAY is the FINAL day you will live within my mind! This torment ends here!" "I think not. All those millennia growing within you, you just can't wait to attack your dear friends! And this time you will destroy them!" She raised a hand, and John fell to the ground, gripping his head. "N-NOOOO!!!" He screamed in agony. "Good! GOOD! Let yourself be destroyed by your torment! Your own emotions will be your undoing!" "EARTH HAPPINESS KISS!!" The rainbow blast slammed through the cloudy body of Metallia, disrupting it for a crucial moment. Terra had used Metallia's captured attention to transform. Terra could stand it no longer, "You can't own him! Do you know why?! IT'S BECAUSE METALLIA IS DEAD!!! YOU DON'T EXIST ANYMORE!" "WHAT!?" "That's right...." John slowly got up. "You don't own anyone! You're just a figment of my imagination! This is MY mind! I CONTROL IT!" "That's what you think." The being recovered it's shock. "I am still very much alive! And I am no less powerful! Destroy him!" She commanded the beasts. John countered the abominations with a sudden flood of memories, positive ones. He knew that Metallia's spell had a weakness. The beasts, suddenly stunned, stood their ground. "What are you waiting for? DESTROY! ANNIHILATE THEM!" Metallia ranted. John smiled. Terra felt it. "They won't listen to you. I control my torment now. And while they are not simply going to disappear, they WILL obey me! And I say, BEGONE!" Just like that the horrors fled away into the barren landscape. "Th-this cannot be!" Metallia was losing control, Terra began to feel relieved. "Sure it can. As a matter of fact: IT IS!" John said. "I-I will return!" Metallia was shrinking. "Not here, you won't." John drew a sword of light. "And I will be waiting if you return anywhere else. PHOENIX BLAZE, ENCLOSURE!" The dome of fire blazed over Metallia, and when it cleared nothing remained but a small pile of ashes. Which blew away in the dry breeze that started. John approached Terra again, and she felt complete relief, as well as joy. "Let's get out of here?" He vanished. Terra felt herself lifted from that plane of existence... ---------------------------- And back in her own body. "I owe you a great debt, Princess Terra." John was already standing, "One I will never be able to repay to you in full." Terra stood, feeling a bit more tired than she thought she had been. "No you don't, I was only trying to help you." "Yes I do." He turned to face her, his eyes strong and vibrant again, with a sense of renewed spirit. "You saved me from a life of torturous and hopeless abandon. For that I owe you not just my life, but my soul." Terra shivered a little, the memory of the time in his mind was still fresh. "I couldn't accept anything..." "Princess..." "Terra" She corrected him, "All right, Terra." He stood straight. "My life has been honor and glory since I was born. Being a Phoenix Knight, as well as being nobility, and a consort to your sister, was the first phase of my life. The next came when Metallia flung me across the galaxy, and I realized that life was more than glory and fame, it was of sacrifice and pain, as well as warmth and love. When I reached Earth again, I was overjoyed. His eyes took a faraway look again. "Metallia's spell had another plan than joy for me however. That was the third phase of my life, when I first laid eyes on Mina again. I became obsessed, and HAD to have her. Even I didn't understand why. But, for some reason, when I finally could have had her, I backed off. Chris had been paralyzed, unable to move, and somehow...I saw through Metallia's dark curtain for a mere second, and it pierced the veil for me. I killed myself rather than let myself sink to evil's level. "After that, you took care of me and re-taught many things. Love, care, honor, and defense of my friends. That must have reawakened the Phoenix Knight, when he realized it might be safe. But after the attack by the Fenix Knight and when Al-Ghural offered me a position at Doppler's right hand, I was tempted, for a fraction of a second, to take it. THAT was the second most frightening experience of my entire lifespan." Terra listened with fascination. "Then...what was the first?" He looked at her again, and she thought she saw his soul. "Being on the brink of madness and dishonor. When I tried to forcefully take Mina from Chris and resorted to kidnapping and skulking in the shadows, when I almost destroyed all I had lived those countless millennia to regain. THAT was the scariest experience I have ever lived through." His voice had taken on a dark tone, but he still continued. "THIS, from the moment you helped cleanse my mind of the horror that was Metallia, is the beginning of the fourth phase of my life. The phase where I will swear my life to protect you and the rest of the Princesses. When I will make amends for past deeds, but never repay the debt which has become part of me. This is the time of repentance." With these words he said with such force and heart that Terra couldn't help but have a single tear come to her eye. Luna had been listening, unnoticed from the table as well. "Welcome back Phoenix Knight!" "But you will..." "...wissssh you never had..." "...Phoenixsssss Knight!" A trio of new voices broke the awed calm that followed his speech. "Who's there?" Terra whirled around to see a tri-headed humanoid serpent standing in the hallway, gripping a spear in it's 2 green-scaled hands. "Trileth! What deed has your master sent you for?" "That issss..." "...none of your concern..." "...at the moment!" The being commented, each head taking a part of the sentence. "Hey! Both of you got more than me that time!" The first head started to squabble with the next 2. "Shut up! We have a misssssion!" The second countered. The third took no notice of his companions fight. "We will meet again, Phoenixssss!" At that, the serpent smashed through the door leading to the outside, breaking the plate glass of it's window. "What was that thing?" Terra was a little confused. "One of Doppler's servants. We must warn the others, quickly!" John said. He took off running, following the serpent's path out the door. Terra watched him a moment, then took out her communicator and called Chris and the others. -------------------------------